Excerpted from a WSJ profile of Craig Barrett, soon-to-retire CEO of Intel: ____________ --When something works, don't re-invent it, reproduce it.-- Perhaps Mr. Barrett's greatest contribution to the semiconductor industry was the concept of "Copy Exactly," the absolutely exact reproduction of successful existing practices and facilities in other locations. Copy Exactly has been the key to Intel and other chip companies actually improving yield rates (the ratio of chips that actually work) even as the products themselves have become thousands of times more complex and miniaturized and fabricated by the millions. The decision not to reinvent the wheel every time was, in fact, the subject of [a] contentious meeting where Mr. Barrett outvoted his managers. "I got the idea from McDonald's," he says. "I asked myself why McDonald's french fries tasted the same wherever I went. That's what I told my guys, "We're going to be the McDonald's of semiconductors." ____________

Due to the intense competition of the business world, Intel is committed to a regular schedule of consistent improvement -- Moore's Law. In other words, they're doing quite a bit more than stamping out chips by the millions; they are also steadily improving both the capacity and quality of each chip.

The "McDonald's Method" is not so different from Henry Ford a century ago, and it can be found in varying forms throughout any large business enterprise. Perhaps the most highly successful businesses are the ones that have most rigorously applied what is often called the "Six Sigma" methodology. Six Sigma is slightly out of vogue today in management circles, but no one refutes its effectiveness.

Can we apply this line of thinking to public education? Not in the sense of opting for soul-crushing uniformity in the service of steady improvement or AYP. Schools are not factories, students aren't widgets, and individualized instruction is still key to helping each student to reach his/her potential. However the principle of identifying and propagating the best strategies and materials currently available -- and then improving them through innovation -- might be worth considering.

According to Barrett, at least, it's good enough for fast-paced tech companies, the incubators of some of the most creative and agile minds of our time. The managers initially rebelled. But the CEO pulled rank, and Intel is, well, Intel.

As a classroom teacher, you know how challenging it can be to meet the needs of all the various types of learners filling those seats in your classroom. First, you need to take into account various learning styles. Some of the students are visual learners, others auditory, while others thrive on kinesthetic input. Additionally, your students are all over the spectrum academically. One group is far ahead, another is struggling to stay afloat, and another group is chugging along right where they should be at grade level.

How can one teacher create lessons to meet the needs of all of these various learners without spending countless hours planning separate lessons and bringing in volunteers to help instruct all of the student groups? Find the answer in tiered lesson plans.

By this point in time, just about every locality has compiled a series of academic standards that must be met at each grade level. There is little wiggle-room here, but there is also great potential when tiered lessons are employed. By starting with a set standard or group of objectives and creating a lesson that naturally allows for flexibility, expansion on the topic, and a variety of possible product outcomes, you’ll meet the needs of all learners while still keeping whole-group lessons on point and relatively compact.

A crucial point is to start with the standards and grow the lesson from there. All the students will then have the same concept development, but with varying activities and reading material that meets them where they are to focus on their particular academic needs.

Although technology CAN provide a useful and occasionally powerful instructional aid -- and despite countless research papers written and dollars invested -- we have yet to witness a significant leap forward in terms of technology helping to make teaching and learning more efficient, effective, and FUN. Sometimes the "tools" we're presented with can just be more complicated and create more work!

Similarly, massive investments in IT infrastructure alone will not correlate to equivalent gains in productivity. The only way to realize the potential is to "retool" to fully utilize the technologies that are available now.

One possible hurdle is that many educational "system" technologies focus outside the education process -- the external results as shown in test scores and other measurements. Measurement is needed and invaluable, certainly! But it's likely that the much heralded leap forward will come as technology tools are applied -- by educators -- to the educational process itself.

This is a strategic decision on the part of every district and school, and it requires buy-in from individual classroom teachers. The answers will be different in each locale, and luckily there won't be a single correct a, b, c, or d choice!

The ST is helpful in terms of state standards alignment and demonstrating "accountability," sure; but that is hardly the only usefulness of a web-based curriculum toolset. The Toolbox is designed to help teachers and administrators spend LESS time interpreting "data" and focus instead on real-life teaching methods and strategies. Countless studies have shown that more time devoted to individualized instruction and the "soft" skills that can't be quantified makes the greatest difference to a young learner.

Good instructional technology should facilitate LESS time spent lesson planning, curriculum mapping, and wading through instructional resources, in order to create MORE time for what matters most in the classroom -- the thoughtful attention dedicated to each student.

Suppose five teachers who teach the same grade or subject get together in a team. Each one creates five really excellent lesson plans -- and shares them with the team. In just a couple of hours, each of the five will have ... more than an entire month of great lessons.

To get a little fancy, it's possible to build cross-curricular teams, vertical teams, or mentoring relationships. But the basic idea is the same.

Do our teammates need to be in the same building? Nah. Must everyone on our team be in the same school district? Nope. Do we ever need to meet or even know who our "teammates" are? Not necessarily!

As educators, we're constantly being asked to foster teamwork among our students, but too often we ourselves work in relative isolation. The ST promotes sharing of curriculum materials for the simple reasons that time is precious, the stakes are high, and many hands make light work!

The Standards Toolbox recently added a GREAT (well, we hope) curriculum mapper to the ST suite for subscriber schools/districts. Thank you to one very smart Arizona educator for prompting this development initiative.

The new C-mapper lets you:

1) create clear and targeted curriculum maps for any subject/grade, or across subjects/grades, 2) easily align to state and local standards (of course!), 3) include and distribute related materials (which can be added over time).

It's super-fast and easy to use, but still gives full functionality integrated with the lesson planner and everything else. You'll be amazed at how easily this powerful new feature will let you create as many curriculum maps as you need. Please ask if you're interested in learning more about this exciting new feature!

Daniel Tammet's reflections on his thought process remind me of some classic comprehension strategies I originally encountered through Dr. Susan Mandel Glazer (make a picture in your mind, put it in your own words, form connections, pay attention to context).

If you aren't familiar with Susan Glazer, her books and programs are great resources for teaching struggling readers and writers, and you can find some of her worksheets in the Resources section of the ST (www.StandardsToolbox.com).

Teachers of foreign languages may be especially interested in this article and Tammet's book.

School Solutions is thrilled to launch the official release of our newest addition to the ST, the Educator Network. Here you can create your own Teacher blog, upload photos to share with your students, chat with other educators and form communities according to your needs and interests.

Curriculum-focused "Web 2.0" collaboration is set to become enormously beneficial to the K-12 education community, and we're already hard at work on the next generation of web services.

We'll continue to add features across the site, but we need your help to shape future development! Please submit questions, comments, and feature requests so that we can potentially incorporate them into future versions of the ST platform. And thank you to the many who have contributed helpful feedback so far.